1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates to the field of computer networks. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a sharable, programmable and composable infrastructure, consisting of carrier-grade equipment.
2. Background Information
New network services, service features and operational tools, are deployed by service providers from time to time. Modern networks are, however, used to provide a variety of services, while changes may be implemented at any time for fewer than all services provided using a network. There are primarily three drivers for changes in modern service provider networks. First, growth demands are fueled by an increase in broadband subscribers and media rich content, and traffic volumes on the Internet continue to show double digit growth rates year after year. Second, customers continually demand new and better service offerings, from application-level services like Voice Over Internet protocol (“VoIP”) and Internet Protocol Television (“IPTV”), connectivity services like Virtual Private Network (“VPN”) and IPv4/IPv6 transport, traffic management services like Denial of Service (“DDoS”) mitigation or Content Distribution Networks (“CDNs”), or more mundane service features like the ability to signal routing preferences to the provider or load balancing features. Third, growing demands on operational procedures result from increasing use of IP networks for business critical applications. As an example of the third driver, end-user applications are often very intolerant of even the smallest network disruption, leading to the deployment of methods to decrease routing convergence in the event of network failures. Similarly, availability expectations, in turn driven by higher level business needs, make regularly planned maintenance events problematic, leading to the development of sophisticated operational methods to limit the impact of such maintenance.
For any network change, especially for new services and service features, corresponding changes may be made to a variety of operational support systems. Additionally, the introduction of new services or service features typically involves long deployment cycles. For example, configuration changes to network equipment are lab-tested before staged deployments are performed in an attempt to reduce the potential of any negative impact on existing services. However, testing in a lab environment is difficult due to the challenge of artificially recreating realistic network conditions in a lab setting.